Authors: Rodrigo Soares – University of Vermont; Christopher Koliba – University of Kansas; Scott C. Merrill, Trisha Shrum, Ruth Quainoo, Molly Myers, Masood Ali-Khan, Jessica A. Balerna, Emma Spett – University of Vermont
Title: The Great Vermont Floods of 2023: A communication assessment. Stakeholders perceptions and lessons learned.
Abstract: Extreme climate events, such as floods, are increasing in magnitude and frequency, putting entire communities at risk, and forcing people in harm’s way to quickly decide how to best protect themselves. How people receive, process and respond to information about extreme events is crucial to saving lives and minimizing damage. Multiple variables influence people’s decision-making process, including perceptions of risk, the content and convergence of messages shared by various sources. Furthermore, the coordination among multiple stakeholders involved in the crisis response makes the process even more complex. Federal, state, local officials, volunteers, non-profit organizations and other groups play their unique and, at times, overlapping roles during the preparation, response, recovery and mitigation stages of a disaster. In July 2023, the state of Vermont experienced a powerful storm that rapidly unleashed as much as 9 inches of rain over the course of approximately 48 hours, causing flash flooding and river flooding across the state. This study aims to provide practical insight based on the perceptions of stakeholders who worked during the 2023 historic floods in Vermont. A series of focus groups (pre- and post-crisis) were held with the participation of professional emergency managers, regional planners, watershed and river managers, dam safety managers, and town officials who work in and/or support the Winooski watershed of Vermont. Two focus groups were convened with collected data describing how these stakeholders would respond to a “potential” crisis. They occurred months before an actual crisis – the Great Vermont Flood of 2023.This allowed for collection of pre- and post-crisis data, which gave this study a unique temporal assessment of how the risk and crisis communication and response processes unfolded. These officials’ first-hand experiences provided learning outcomes and recommendations that can, ultimately, help to save lives and infrastructure impacted by future flood events.